Socca off the griddle at Chez René, rosé from the Bellet AOC terroir above the city, and the Promenade des Anglais turning copper at dusk
Nice (population 342,000) is the fifth-largest city in France and the cultural capital of the French Riviera — at the meeting point of Alpine Italy and Mediterranean France, which is why its food is Niçoise rather than simply Provençal: a distinct dialect, a distinct cuisine, and a history as both the city of Nice (République niçoise, 1792–1815) and a Sardinian city (Kingdom of Sardinia, 1388–1860) before becoming French only in 1860. The foundational dishes — socca (a large flat pancake of chickpea flour, olive oil, and water, baked on an enormous copper pan over wood fire and served in irre…
Nice was founded as a Greek colony (Nikaia, 'Victory') approximately 350 BC by sailors from Massalia (Marseille) on the rocky headland above the Bay of Angels. The Romans expanded it as a commercial port (Cemenelum, 1km north in present-day Cimiez) — the ruins of Roman baths, an amphitheatre, and the Matisse Museum now occupy the site. The city spent 500 years under the House of Savoy, which explains why Nicois dialect is as close to Piedmontese Italian as to Provençal French, and why the old town's architecture (pastel ochre, rust, and terracotta façades, green shutters, the Baroque churches…